These companies are despicable, for sure, but they couldn't exist without a long line of poor suckers. Both parties are clearly at fault in different ways, but we can fix the problem without ignoring the poor or inventing significant new and complex laws to clamp down on bad actors: We invest in education.

When we have another sub-prime style meltdown we need to bail the economy out of, we're going to be wishing we invested in our schools and added basic life skills such as personal finance to the lesson plans. It's certainly cheaper to bailout schools than financial institutions.

Anything else will fix a symptom, not cure the disease.